Earth calling MBoy !!

[Mr Moofo]

@mboy
( and anybody else , for that matter)
I have fitted about 1 million tyres to rims - some are piss easy, some are a slightly greater struggle. I have only given up once on a let of road tyres I was trying to fit ton slightly too wide rims.


That was until I tried to fit a Schwalbe Magic Mary Super Gravity (29 x 2.4). Getting side one onto the rim involved using. motorcycle tyre lever - which is never a good sign. This is onto a trek (bontrager) wide rim.
Getting side two on is impossible - the tyre is as stiff as fuck. I am trying do get some flexibility into it by using a heat gun (gently). Once most of the tyre is on the rim, I am left with a 20 or so cm section that I need to pop onto the rim. That section is refusing to play the game - even with said motorcycle lever. When I get as much tyre over the rim edge as is humanly possible the remainder is hanging 8 or so cm below the top radius of the rim. lever from the middle and the edges unhook, lever from either end and the opposite end unhooks.
It is about to go in the bin - and the bontrager SE5 Team issue go back on.
Any suggestions before I bin it and walk away from Schwalbe forever? - I have even checked to see that is actually is a 29 inch tyre not a 27.5 !!
Thanks

[weeksy]

Oooooh me me... i know the answer

[weeksy]

well, probably....

Have a looky at your wheel and see if it has the bigger 'taping' which is like a 2mm thick rim strip. They're common on Bonty wheels.

If you remove the thick one and fit some standard tubeless tape from your preferred supplier, it'll get a LOT easier.

Add to that... stick the tyre next to/touching the radiator for an hour, it makes it a LOT softer and the bead actually flexes then too

Bontys really are a LOT looser to fit though, i had this with his Session and i could fit the Bonty GR5 with my fingers only.... everything else, oooft it's tight !!!

[Mr Moofo]

I have a love/ hate relationship with rim tape. Gorilla tape is a great method - until you have to clean off the residual glue with acetone. I am too old to lose time on earth doing that.
The yellow tape method is better - but sometimes is hit and miss.
The Bonty Rim Tape is working - so it is staying. The Schwalbe will be removed and the Bonty put back on - or a Michelin Wild front that I have ...

[weeksy]

Quitter


The bonty tape/thing is brilliant at stopping air loss. But crap for fitting tyres

[Mr Moofo]

Quitter


The bonty tape/thing is brilliant at stopping air loss. But crap for fitting tyres

Bitch

The Magic Mary can be used on one of the other!

[mboy]

@Mr Moofo you can PM me you know!

This is a Bonty issue not anyone else issue… Trust me here… That tyre, or any Maxxis/Michelin/Conti/Vittoria etc. will go on properly when you remove the plastic rim strip that only Bonty use and replace with a proper rim tape… PROPER rim tape… Gorilla tape is NOT a proper rim tape. It is porous, absorbs sealant (which is caustic and then corrodes aluminium rims from inside out!!!). Stans Yellow Tape is the original, it’s a bit inflexible but it’s better than nothing. There are many better tubeless rim tapes out there these days. Tubeless tape should be approx 2-4mm wider than the internal width of the rim.

The Bonty issue isn’t the rims so much as the tyres. Their tyres aren’t made to the ETRTO tubeless standard the same as everyone else’s, hence the heath robinson plastic rim strip they fit to their wheels on bikes OEM fitted with bonty tyres too… Ditch it, fit a proper rim strip and a decent tyre, and don’t look back.

DO NOT use a motorcycle tyre lever… I have had to deal with a few people who have done this recently (because trying to fit to a Bonty rim with the rimstrip still in place, it’s a serious issue that we come across more often than you would think!) and they have ended up stretching the bead on their brand new £70 tyre, rendering it useless and voiding any warranty…

My work email is m.bonnes@schwalbe.co.uk for any bicycle tyre related queries, please get in touch directly if you feel I can help you… It is literally my job to help the public to understand our products and make sure they are fitting them correctly!

[Pirahna]

I have a love/ hate relationship with rim tape. Gorilla tape is a great method - until you have to clean off the residual glue with acetone.

Use a fresh piece of Gorilla tape to remove residue from the old tape, a lot quicker and cleaner than acetone.

[Mr Moofo]

I have a love/ hate relationship with rim tape. Gorilla tape is a great method - until you have to clean off the residual glue with acetone.

Use a fresh piece of Gorilla tape to remove residue from the old tape, a lot quicker and cleaner than acetone.

Tried that - the idea is nice. It doesn't work (at least on on the rim finish I had)

[Mr Moofo]

@Mr Moofo you can PM me you know!

This is a Bonty issue not anyone else issue… Trust me here… That tyre, or any Maxxis/Michelin/Conti/Vittoria etc. will go on properly when you remove the plastic rim strip that only Bonty use and replace with a proper rim tape… PROPER rim tape… Gorilla tape is NOT a proper rim tape. It is porous, absorbs sealant (which is caustic and then corrodes aluminium rims from inside out!!!). Stans Yellow Tape is the original, it’s a bit inflexible but it’s better than nothing. There are many better tubeless rim tapes out there these days. Tubeless tape should be approx 2-4mm wider than the internal width of the rim.

The Bonty issue isn’t the rims so much as the tyres. Their tyres aren’t made to the ETRTO tubeless standard the same as everyone else’s, hence the heath robinson plastic rim strip they fit to their wheels on bikes OEM fitted with bonty tyres too… Ditch it, fit a proper rim strip and a decent tyre, and don’t look back.

DO NOT use a motorcycle tyre lever… I have had to deal with a few people who have done this recently (because trying to fit to a Bonty rim with the rimstrip still in place, it’s a serious issue that we come across more often than you would think!) and they have ended up stretching the bead on their brand new £70 tyre, rendering it useless and voiding any warranty…

My work email is m.bonnes@schwalbe.co.uk for any bicycle tyre related queries, please get in touch directly if you feel I can help you… It is literally my job to help the public to understand our products and make sure they are fitting them correctly!

@mboy
I was in prime to kill mode earlier on and just wanting to get the tyre on - I will use email in future.
Suffice to say, trying to get the tyre of the rim was not easy either.
And the bonty went straight back on no problem.

I gave up using gorilla tape a few years ago - or electrical tape. I know there have been stories re corrosion etc, but I never found it an issue , or had to replace wheels for other issues.

As for the front wheel - indeed it has the plastic trek liner inside. And I have proper Tesa rimless tape. I also now realise that you have to tension / stretch it very slightly and do two passes around the wheel for it to work. Until I worked this out, Tesa tape used to leak like a bastard, or last a very short time.

Once I wear out the front ((the reason for the change BTW was because I had a puncture last night on the Downs, which wouldn't seal). Research suggested that the Bonty tyres were lightweight ( which they were, once I got them off)), I will replace - but probably not with the DH MM I have - the carcass is so stiff, I am not sure it will ever go easily on a rim. The rear has been replaced by a DH Pirelli. Which, even with the Trek rim sealer, went on fine ish.
@weeksy @Pirahna - thanks for the advice / help / humiliation

And I promise I will remove the Trek nanny tape and do it properly - which it is on the other three bikes

(Back story: It doesn't help that I have an issue with shoulder impingement at the moment , so my right arm is mega weak/ painful). Trying to get anchovies into the tyre last night hurt, pushing the bike back up Truleigh hill hurt. And then trying to invert the Trek to get the wheels off , and then leveraging tyres using scaffold poles, nearly killed me!)

[MingtheMerciless]

What you need @Mr Moofo is a set of late, lamented Bonty FR3’s, the fastest rolling, with great edge grip tyres ever made (we’ll not mention the terrifying early to mid lean mincer killing death strip where you transitioned from the centre non existent tread to the blocky edge knobblies which had no grip at all).

[weeksy]

@weeksy @Pirahna - thanks for the advice / help / humiliation

I only learned about it in the last12 months due to owning the Fuel and the Session.

[Mr Moofo]

@weeksy @Pirahna - thanks for the advice / help / humiliation

I only learned about it in the last12 months due to owning the Fuel and the Session.

Even without it the Magic Mary wouldn't go on. The Bontrager would do (and stay inflated ) and the Michelin Wild Enduro would. Just retaped the rim - leaving it til tomorrow and the Wild will go on for now

[Mr Moofo]

What you need @Mr Moofo is a set of late, lamented Bonty FR3’s, the fastest rolling, with great edge grip tyres ever made (we’ll not mention the terrifying early to mid lean mincer killing death strip where you transitioned from the centre non existent tread to the blocky edge knobblies which had no grip at all).

How long was it before you were up and running after the pinned scaphoid?

[MingtheMerciless]

What you need @Mr Moofo is a set of late, lamented Bonty FR3’s, the fastest rolling, with great edge grip tyres ever made (we’ll not mention the terrifying early to mid lean mincer killing death strip where you transitioned from the centre non existent tread to the blocky edge knobblies which had no grip at all).

How long was it before you were up and running after the pinned scaphoid?

After it was pinned and grafted about 3 months but it took the NHS 4 months to decide it needed pinning and the bone had died!

It wasn't the tyre that got me but the "Stanmer Tree of Doom".